historical analysis of the french film sorceress by susanne schiffman

7/30/2019 historical analysis of the French film Sorceress by Susanne Schiffman.

1/20

...unique andcompelling. -- L.A Ts

TCHEKY KARYO CHRISTINE BOISSON JEAN CARMET

SorceressSorceressThe STory And ScripTing of The fiLmBY PAMElA BERgER

inTerview in french wiTh SuzAnne SchiffmAn

BY MARC CHEvRIE

The STory And ScripTing of The fiLmBY PAMElA BERgER

inTerview in french wiTh SuzAnne SchiffmAn

BY MARC CHEvRIE


2/20

Scene Selections:

1. The Legend and Etiennes Arrival

2. Preaching and Confession

3. Etienne Meets the Forest Woman

4. Destruction of the Pond Discovered

5. Etienne Remembers

6. Elda Gathers Medicinal Plants

7. Simeon and Agnes Arrive

8. Young Artaud Imprisoned

9. Old Artauds Death

10. To Read and to Write

11. Saint Christopher Ritual

12. Healing Rite

13. Inquisition

14. Elda Held Prisoner

15. Judgment

16. Elda Confronts Etienne

17. Simeons Revelation

18. Etiennes Confession

19. Etienne and the Count

20. Resolution


3/20

The Story and Scripting

of the Film Sorceress

Pamea Berer

The lm Sss (L m t la S in French) was inspired by a treatisewritten in the mid-thirteenth century by the monk Etienne of Bourbon. In the earystaes of the inquisition, Etienne was chared by the pope to inquire into pos-sibe heretica practices. He was on this mission when he entered a iae in theDombes, an isolated region of France about twenty-ve miles northeast of Lyon.Whie istenin to the iaers confessions, Etienne earned that a woman he caeda tla was usin what he considered strane heain practices. He inestiated anduncoered a story encompassin a beief and a ritua that had been passed down forgenerations. The story told of a noblemans baby, whom a sainted gure, Guinefort,

saed from certain death by snakebite. The peasants came to beiee in the powers ofSaint guinefort and subsequenty inoked his protection for their sick infants throuha series of rituaized acts. The monk earned of the roe of the tla: she woud eada mother with a sick baby to the saint's buria round and toether they woud per-form rituas durin the course of which a wof woud, on occasion, threaten the chid.Demonic and danerous as Etienne deemed this practice, it became een more hor-rendous to him, as a man of God, when he learned that Guinefort, the saintly gure,was not a man or a woman, but a reyhound.*

Etienne writes that eentuay he earned the story behind the ritua. The peas-ants tod him that the reyhound, on before, had beoned to a Count de viars,whose wife had just ien birth to a baby. One day when the parents were out ofthe house, a serpent came into the room where the crade stood. guinefort, whowas uardin the baby, attacked and kied the serpent and threw it into a corner.The do's mouth was boodied and the crade was oerturned. When the count andhis wife came back and saw the boodied do beside the oerturned crade, theyassumed that guinefort had eaten the chid, and at once the father sew the anima.Ony after the do was dead did the father see the baby seepin safey and the piecesof the serpent strewn about the room. Reaizin that he had unjusty kied the do

that had saed his chid, the father paced stones on the anima's rae and panteda tree next to it a. Etienne's text oes on to pass down a concusion tothe tae as it was enshrined in the memory of the peasants: Because of the injusticeof the count's deed, his caste was destroyed and his estate became a wasteand. Thepeasants, knowin how the innocent guinefort had been kied, isited the raesite,honored the do as a martyr, and prayed to him when they were sick.**

Etienne tes us that he iewed the peasants' practices and beiefs as seduc-tions by the dei. He especiay castiated the mothers who souht the hep of the

"do saint." He caed the peope toether, went to the buria pace of the do, andpreached aainst the eis he had heard described. He had the do's bones du upand the sacred wood cut down. He persuaded the secular authorities to conscatethe property of anyone who went to the site to enae in those nefarious actiities.


4/20

This rare impse into medieapeasants beiefs and rituas forms thecore of the lm Sss. Thouh Istructured the story and script aroundthe essence of Etienne's account, I had

to take many iberties as I deeopedthe characters, their motiations, thepot ine, and the utimate resoution ofthe conicts. Though inspired by Eti-ennes text, Sss is a distinct work,an interpretation of what miht haeoccurred, a recreation aumented byinsihts from other historica sources, fokore, botany, anthropooy and art history.

But the script is also a work of the imagination, a c-

tion created by one medieaist who tried to fashioneach scene so that the whoe woud seem authenticto other medieaists. Not ony was the dramatic nar-ratie deised within the rubrics of mediea ife andthouht, but the materia word of the midde aeswas recreated as authenticay as possibe. The pro-duction desiner, Bernard vezat, was scrupuous inhis recreation of a mediea ambiance as he oersawthe fashionin of props, costumes and architecturebased on paintin and scupture from the period. The

director, Suzanne Schiffman, coud choose to haethe camera set up anywhere since there was noth-in in camera rane that was not mediea. Shecoud turn the camera 360 derees as she masterfuybrouht the thirteenth-century story to ife.

Sss opens with a dramatization of the do's martyrdom, an eent thathad occurred well before the lifetime of Etienne. In the lm the scene takes place inthe ninth century, amid costumes and props inspired by depictions in ninth-century

Caroinian manuscripts. The embem on the do's tombstone, inscribed in boodby the peasant woman, is a ariation of the triskee, an ancient Cetic sin of power,a sin eokin a sti more distant past. I chose the triskee because the roe ritua,dedicated to a do, is ery ikey an exampe of reiious syncretism. From the 2ndcentury B.C.E. unti we into the eary centuries of Christianity, Cetic peopes inscattered roups occupied much of Europe, from Turkey to Spain, from Itay to Ire-land. Celtic mythology and religion, as exemplied in art and in epic literature, werecharacterized by the worship of animals, which were seen as more fertile, more eet,and more independent than humans. When the Romans conquered gau, indiiduaCetic ods were mered with Roman ods to whom simiar powers were attributed.Eentuay the Ceto-Roman ods were portrayed as part anima and part human. Itis possibe that guinefort, the do-saint, was, in some manner, a "hodoer" from theCelto-Roman past, and that he was a gure who, with time, was further transformedinto a Christian saint.


5/20

The cose-up shot of the bood-inscribed triskee dissoes into the incisedtriskele adorning the same rock in the lmic presentof the mid-thirteenth century. The camera moes backto reea a woman takin baby cothes from the treenext to the rock. The baby cothes are part of a roe

ritual enacted later in the lm. This woman, playedby Christine Boisson, is the character whom Etienneeentuay cas a tla with the impication that sheis a sorceress. As the tla athers the cothes fromthe tree next to the do's raestone, Etienne, payedby Tcheky Karyo, comes into iew. He is readin abreiary, obiious to Nature, and of course, obii-ous to the woman, who sees him and immediateymoes behind a tree that wi protect her from his

iew, shoud he ance up from his book.Approachin the iae, the monk passes throuh a roup of women soakin

and workin with hemp pants that are used for makin rope. Not ony is this taskappropriate to the season, mid-Auust, but workin with hemp aso foreshadows theimportance of rope bers later in the script, when Cecile, the young wife of the im -prisoned saboteur, weaves hemp bers into her skirt. When she visits her husband inhis prison tower, he will extract the bers and make a rope to escape. Her weavingthe hemp into her skirt makes the strands of the rope inisibe to the uards, intentony on ropin her body as they search her. The eit motif of bindness and insiht

threads throuh the script.

Etienne heads for the dwein of the iae cur, a totay imainary characterwhom I created as a rather soeny, but endearin man in his eary sixties. Therewas often a wide schism between an educated member of a reiious order, such asEtienne, and a simpe parish priest. The monk, reconizin this schism, tries to in-ratiate himsef with the suspicious cur. The subtext in the scene is Etienne's desireto aoid the antaonism which coud be directed at him as the intruder. These arethe eary years of the Inquisition when Dominicans were sent out to preach and hear

confession, but a the whie inquirin (from the latin word qst) about possibeheresies. This iae cur, payed by Jean Carmet, is fashioned to be the protectorof his ock. He also tries, however, not to displease any elements of the church orthe oca count, who was responsibe for his support. Etienne's patronymic, whichseems to mark him as a member of the nobiity, makes the cur's position particuarydelicate. The cur rst becomes leery when Etienne says that he is in the region touncoer possibe heretics.

The cur, rebufng Etienne, remarks that "There are no heretics in my parish....My peope are as pious as they are poor." Etienne counters:

ETIENNE: No doubt you hae drawn up the ist of suspectedheretics as the church counci ordered you to do.


6/20

CUR: There are no names to ist.

ETIENNE: And intruders? Sometimes they disuise themseesas cobbers or barbers. They woud hae aymen baptize andwomen preach. Their poison coud destroy the whoe church.

CUR: You are the rst "intruder" to stop here in many months.I guard my ock from "pious wayfarers."

The cur's one-upmanship is neary ost on Etienne, who perseeres, expainin thathe has not come to threaten the ock, but only to uncover irregularities so theuity may repent and be absoed.

CUR: Then you hae aways been successfu ettin heretics

to 'repent.'ETIENNE: Ony once did I fai . . .

CUR: Yes?

ETIENNE: After eery means of persuasion, I . . .

CUR: You . . .

ETIENNE: I made my recommendation

CUR: You . . .

ETIENNE: The heretic was destroyed.

CUR: Burned?

ETIENNE: By the secuar authorities, of course.

At this point the cur steps back, thereby bockin from Etienne's iew a portionof a wa paintin iustratin part of the gospes: the Massacre of the Innocents,when Herod ordered that a babies be kied, a theme famiiar in the muras thatadorned rura Romanesque churches. I hypothesized that here the iaers mihthae scratched a hao around the head of the do, which is often depicted at the feetof the murderous henchmen. Ceary the cur reaizes that there are secrets to keepfrom this intrudin friar. The cur interenes seera times to try to protect or sae hisvillagers. One such instance is later in the lm when Etienne spies what a womanwas embroiderin on a shroud.

ETIENNE: Why was that woman embroiderin a do on the shroud?

CUR: A do?


7/20

ETIENNE: Yes.

CUR: Why, a do is the symbo of Saint Dominic, the founderof your order.

ETIENNE: But how woud these peope know that?

CUR: You woud be surprised at what they know, friar Etienne.

As Etienne makes himsef comfortabe in a side chape, the cur moes toward hishousekeeper who has just entered. "That man's got the sight of a bat, whose erce,unbinkin eyes are bind," he tes her in a near-whisper. Thouh it is not expicit inthis lm, a small percentage of thirteenth-century parish priests were married, andmany others had ifeon reationships with one woman. viaes were often too

poor to support a priest, so a peasant woman with and to work sometimes sered asthe priest's ony rea means of support.

Creatin diaoue for a screenpay set in the distant past demands the prob-in of unusua resources. Thouh Etienne's manner of speech can be somewhatintuited from his writins, we hae no expicit records of how the peasants spoke,since peasants did not write. Theirs was an ora cuture, mosty ost to us. Wecan, howeer, infer that their speech contained imaery inspired by their daiylife and by metaphors used in fables. The gurative expressions found in folkloreand passed down from generation to generation must also have inuenced their

speech. So I turned to orally transmitted fables and folklore to nd the languagethrouh which the peasants coud express themsees. As I created the charactersand their motiations, I tried to cast their thouhts in the words of those fabes.When I found scupture or paintin that iustrated the same fabes, I hypothesizedthat the particuar fabe was commony known and thus an authentic part of themindset of the times. The cur's aphorism, for instance, comparin Etienne to a bat,derives from such sources, as do other fables worked into the dialogue of the lm,(for instance the wof and the amb; the sta in the bushes). The unbinkin eyesof the blind bat establishes the theme of the lm: Etienne's passage from blindness

to insiht, a course wherein he earns somethin about himsef, as we as aboutthe peasant word into which he has stumbed.

Sermons deiered to the unettered were another source of potentia diaoue,for they aso contained fabes. Sometimes these sermons were written down, so theyare accessibe to us. They proided not ony exampes of imaery, but aso a modefor the sermon Etienne woud preach in the iae. In his treatise Etienne indicatesthat he was preachin aainst superstition and sorcery, but in the script, to focusthe potine, he preaches aainst heresy. Searchin for a sermon that coud workcinematicay, one that contained anima imaery to amuse the crowd in the mar-ketpace, I found such an exampe in the writins of the preacher Jacques de vitry,whose work Etienne had read. It tes of a itte bird and a fox with a on red tonue,a tonue that becomes a metaphor for a heretics words. The bird hops cose tothe fox to admire his beautifu tonue, and suddeny it is obbed up in one up.


8/20

This apposite fabe aows Etienneto use such props as fox skins andcaed birds, items readiy presentin a marketpace of a iae. Theactor coud thus create the "busi-

ness" that hihihts Etienne as theshowman that such a preacher musthae been. In the Enish anuaeersion, i.e. the oriina ersion ofthe script, the forest woman and thepeasants use short, simpe words.When Etienne uses on atinatewords, the peasants do not understand him. He must rephrase his sentence or carifythe meanin, for exampe when he expains that "diination" is "a craft of the dei."

A major challenge in making a lm that takes place long ago is to determinewhat kinds of estures the characters woud hae used. Thouh the estures are notreay part of scriptwritin, knowin them heped me enision how the actors woudmoe and interact. Thus I assembed an art-historica research abum containin pic-tures of wa paintins, statuary, and manuscripts which, amon other thins, showedestures peope woud make in particuar instances. An iustration of confessionfrom a mediea manuscript showed how a priest and a confessant woud be paced.In the lm, just as in the manuscript, the person confessing kneels before Etiennewith no partition to screen one from the other. The actors' estures, too, repicate

those of the gures in the illustration.

In the script, Etienne earns throuh the confessiona about a situation thatleads to the development of the subplot, a complaint about the newly-created shponds and their effect upon the community.* The inented character Cecie, a peas-ant woman, mistakeny interprets Etienne's sermon about the daners of "beautifu-tonued" heretics by "confessin" that "the Count is the fox with the red tonue . . . .Last year he ooded the best eld and made a pond for sh." To dramatize the idea ofthe injustice impicit in the subpot, I created the Artauds, a famiy whose ieihood

was seerey impaired by the reedy actions of a oca count. In his quest for a cashcrop of sh that he could sell in town, Count de Villars ooded fertile elds, therebycreatin a pond and depriin the Artauds of and they had traditionay cutiated.In reaction, two Artaud men drain the ponds in an act of sabotae.

These new ponds are the ecooica underpinnin of both the primary and sec-ondary plots of the lm. On the one hand they have impeded the familys abilityto grow sufcient food; on the other, they have altered the natural balance of thereion by attractin mosquitoes and other insects common to marshands. In theheat of August, when the lm takes place, the swarms of mosquitoes attracted to thestandin waters of the pond are ikey to bite chidren, who wi scratch the bites. Thescratched skin becomes infected, and it is then that the mid antibiotic properties ofthe elderowers, properly prepared, would have a healing effect. According to Eti-enne's text, the tla took peope to worship the eder tree; one coud aso ima-


9/20

ine that the woman used some part of the tree as a heain aent in the treatment ofsick chidren. In fact, modern science has demonstrated that the pisti and stamen,the bark, leaves, berries, and especially the owers of the elder tree, have therapeuticproperties when athered at the riht time and prepared in the appropriate ways. Soperhaps this tla knew throuh fokoric transmission and throuh tria and error

what modern science has earned: that the properties of pants can cure certain ai-ments and that ritua can induce heain. Thouh the root of the latin word tlaseems to impy that the woman was od, the context in which Etienne uses it dem-onstrates that aboe a the peope beieed she souht heath and effected cures.Thus Etiennes disparain comments about her are actuay precious historica reicswhich proide an insiht into the store of knowede that such a heain womanmay hae possessed. Further, one miht hypothesize that a heain woman with suchknowede woud know when to pick the medicina pant and where it rew. It wasat one such spot that I decided to hae Etienne encounter the tla.

To deise the diaoue that the tla would speak when Etienne saw her rstpickin and then preparin her medications, I examined the eder bushes at a ocabotanica arden. After touchin, smein and een tastin the arious parts of thetree, as we as studyin its shape and form, and reiewin the traditiona remediesattributed to it, I tried to imaine what the tla miht hae known about the eder.She must hae known when the eaes or bark shoud be athered, how they mustbe prepared, and what parts are ood for warts, burns, sore throats, or feer. lookininto fokore associated with the tree, I earned that the eder was known as a "MotherTree" and that a Danish fokson is dedicated to the Eder Mother. I decided to ca

the tla Eda, an Enish ariant of the name by which the eder tree was knownin germanic tonues.

In addition to her knowede of pants, I aso decided to ie Eda a certainpower over wild animals, and so I tapped into the ancient mythic gure of the Mis-tress of the Beasts. The art-historica tradition sometimes shows this femae hero-

ine/oddess subduin a ion or other widanimal. This mythic gure may have ac-quired her reputation for controin wid

animas because, on occasion, when babyanimas are raised by humans, they winot attack the person who raised them. Imade Eda one of these women so that inthe story she coud communicate with thewof, thereby offerin a kind of protectionto the baby in the roe rite.

Whether he is obserin the roe rite or scowin at the peasants, Etienneiews the iaers ies as danerousy tainted by the dei. Eary on, the monktakes part in a Mass dedicated to Saint Christopher, but then, inexpicaby from Eti-ennes point of iew, the peasants eae the church and carry the statue into theelds. They begin to leap around it throwing what he sees as wicked serpents ontothe gure of the Christian saint. From the peasants point of view, the powers of


10/20

Saint Christopher hae been bestowed upon the snakes (an exampe of sympatheticmaic). As the snakes fa to the round they wi hep the seed quicken and row,thereby assuring a good grain crop for the coming season. Etienne is horried as air tes him, The cur says that the wicked serpents were in the garden of Eden.These are the ood ones. Saint Christopher heps them open up the earth so it can

take the seed. For her and the other iaers these serpents wi hep the raingrow as high as the dancers leap. The childs words reect a pre-Christian attitude tothe serpent, when it was the companion of the Mother goddess and of the heainods Aescepius and Hyeia. Etienne sees the serpent as representin ei, as it doesin a Christian art and iterature.

The main conict in the lm is Etienne's reaction to the power that Elda'sknowede of heain ies her. We obsere her expertise in the roe where guine-fort is buried. It is there that she and the mothers undertake a ritua that was probaby

centuries-od een before it was coneyed to the women in the mid-thirteenth cen-tury. As Etienne tes us, women with sick chidren woud seek out the tla. It wasshe who tauht them the ritua they shoud enact. Etienne's text reates exacty whatthe peasants tod him about this rite and the tla's roe in it. The nocturna roescene in Sss is based on Etienne's description, but the mother seekin out Edain her hovel is added to the story so that the healing power of the elderower-brewcan be auded to. In the darkness of the hoe we impse Eda iin the babysomethin to drink before she and the mother take him to guineforts roe. Onceat the site Eda hans the infants cothes on the tree and then, with the mother, shepasses the naked baby between two tree trunks. Toether they ca upon the spirits

of the woods to take back the sick chid and return a heathy one in its pace. Thewords of the chant they intone suest that this part of the rite is an exampe of theancient superstition concernin the chanein, i.e. that a sick or abnorma chidis not the parents rea offsprin, but a different chid that the wood spirits, orsome other supernatura force, has substituted for their own. Then the mother andthe tla ay the baby on straw and pace candes on either side of the chids head.A wof, reported to appear sometimes, becomes part of the scene. I hypothesizedthat here, Edas powers as a Mistress of the Beasts woud be reeaed, that she mihthae known wid creatures so we that she coud make sounds they woud react to,

or, that she miht hae brouht up the wof from birth and been abe to contro him.But to Etiennes eyes, the baby was in morta daner. Why were mothers wiin tosubject their babies to such a danerous rite, Etienne woud ponder? And we, in ourtime, woud ask oursees the same question.

Modern research into the pacebo effect has shown that heain techniques aremore ikey to be effectie if peope beiee they are foowin cuturay acceptedmethods. By extension, the rite in the roe, reated as it was to the mothers' beief inthe greyhound's healing powers, entailed a xed series of activities that would assuagethose spirits responsibe for curin the babies. If a baby died despite the mother'shain performed the on-sanctioned ritua, the mother woud be exonerated of uit.She had done what she coud. So, ien that particuar peasant cuture, Eda was hep-in the mothers, participatin with them in a on-enshrined rite, a the whie adminis-tering the ower water so that its healing properties could go to work.


11/20

The main theme of the lm revolves around the idea that those in positions ofpower must learn to see in a new way. Etienne is the rst to understand this lesson,and ater he tries to teach it to the count. The idea for such a pot eoed fromthe pacement of this account in Etienne's treatise, for he incuded these eents inhis section on superstitions, rather than his description of heresy. Why did Etienne

utimatey jude the actions of the tla as bein superstitions and not heresy? Atother times he had participated in judments that resuted in the burnin of her-etics. From Etienne's point of iew the tla practiced diination; she tauht themothers to inoke the dei; she ed the ritua which set up a do as a saint. Whydid he not decide that she was a heretic who shoud be burned? His text does notreay answer the question.

It is here that, for cinematic purposes, I had to take a eap of the imaination andcreate a back-story. What if, in confrontin the tla, Etienne de Bourbon met some-

one who both repeed and fascinated him, a woman his ae, with race and mystery.What if, after condemnin this woman to death, he was brouht to the discoery ofsome suppressed secret of his own past that heped him see this woman, and otherwomen of her kind, in a different iht? What if he came to reaize that he, in his ordyjudments of peope, had been uity of pride, one of the ices he was writin aainstin this treatise? These are dramatic narratie questions, and the answers that I deised,thouh couched the reaities of the Midde Aes, were totay imainary.

Historians and art historians aways take on the roe of interpreters as we ana-yze a text or a isua document. We work within a rubric of insihts and intuitions

fostered by long immersion in our respective elds. But the questions we pose areshaped by our own times, our own interests, and our own imainations. It was in thisspirit that I set out to write a screenpay based on both the peasants' understandinof the martyred do, and the ritua as it took shape throuh its enerationa passae.Howeer, I aso souht to create a script propeed by a dramatic story, one which,ien those particuar texts, I beieed coud hae happened.

The rite in the woods gave Etienne ample justication, according to church law,to condemn the tla. If we enision Etienne as a reasonabe man, the ritua must

hae struck him as terrifyin, not ony because it was dedicated to a do saint, but asobecause it actuay did put the babies in rae daner. In Etienne's iew the tla andthe mothers who foowed her came cose to committin infanticide. Many modernobservers would agree. I saw that the dramatic tension of the lm could reside in theconict between Etienne's justiable fear for the babies' lives and our understanding ofthe desperate mothers wiin to o to a ends to sae their chidren.

In the lm, however, Etienne's judgment of Elda is ultimately made on personalrounds, because of somethin he discoers about himsef. The friar's "suppressed"past was an inention, deised for the purposes of pot. I imained that Etienne wasdeepy unnered by Eda, so he rais aainst her, and then condems her to be burned.In that speech he ets sip that she, the dei-become-woman, has roused ust in hisdreams. The writings of Peter the Venerable, along with gures sculpted on the mid-twefth century capitas in the church at vzeay and esewhere, proide raphic


12/20

exampes of this dream imaery. One of the capitas, for instance, dispays a nudewoman with ampe breasts and widowing hair. She personies luxuriaor sexual proigacy. Luxuria here asesewhere is accompanied by the

dei and is presented to the eyesof a ictimized monk. These kindsof writins and scuptures inspiredmy creation of Etienne's internaconicts: his repulsion at the infan-ticida acts committed by the forestwoman, his repressed attraction toher, the interdiction aainst his act-in on that attraction, and his ensuin desire to condemn her to death.

During their nal explosive confrontation Elda reveals to Etienne the tragedyof her past when she was a victim of the custom of rst-night right. This part of herpast is a tota inention, but consonant with the customs of mediea times, when,it has been reported, a lord could deower a peasant girl on her wedding night.Howeer, other parts of her ife story, and particuary her acceptance of her roe asa heaer, were inspired by an ethnoraphic inquiry conducted amon eders in theDombes and reported on in the book by Jean-Caude Schmitt.* The aed peoperemembered a person called "la Fanchette, who was later identied at Franoisegadin. She ied aone in a hut and athered watercress and dandeions for food.

She cast spes, but neer upon those who ae her meat. She went on pirimaescarryin sma chane ien to her by the parents of sick chidren who wanted herto pray for their recoery at some sacred site. Poor and soitary, inked to sicknessand heath, birth and death, a Fanchette was the ast in a on ine of womenheaers with ties to the roe. The od peope's memory of her partiay inspired mycreation of Eda. gadins buria pace in the raeyard at Chation-sur-Chararonnewas destroyed in 1974, so there are no monuments to her. Nor is there a memoria

to any of the other heaers whosered at the site throuhout the

centuries. But the briiant workof Jean-Caude Schmitt hasbrouht to iht traces of theiries. like a Fanchette, manyof the other women no doubtaso had a specia knowede ofthe heain power of pants andof what we woud today ca theoccut. What the rea Etienne deBourbon surey neer fathomedwas that after he preached

aainst the do saint, after he thouht he had extirpated its eery aspect, seen-hundred years ater, a woman such as a Fanchette coud be makin pirimaesto the rae site with the utimate oa of heain sick chidren.


13/20

In Sss, a composite of the subsequent enerations of women who earnedthe heain ways is the character Anes payed by Maria de Medeiros. Mysteriousyattracted to Eda, Anes intuits the connection between the do saint, the tree, andthe heain practices. In a nod to

the many femae painters who untirecenty went unreconized, I madeher an artist who was abe to synthe-size the whoe story in one drawinshown at the end: the do, the tree,the woman and the baby. The char-acter, Etienne, when ookin at herdrawin, is abe to truy see for therst time. The cur and Etiennes ser-

ant, Simeon, reaize this. Simeon,in a nal use of a folkloric aphorism,compares Etienne to a proud sta who ot his anters cauht in the bushes, and whowas heped by the iaers to set himsef free. That is an appropriate fabe to usehere, for the part of the treatise that contains this story is under the rubric of Pride.The cur payfuy muses that one day Etienne miht write just such a rand treatisewith many parts, and parts within parts, (just as the Schoastic phiosophers of the daywere wont to write). But, Simeon says, here he suffered. The cur counters, Heeven t that suffering into the treatise. But hidden. And when men read it, theyllneer know what reay happened.

Thouh we miht ike to think the rea Etienne de Bourbon was ikewisechaned by what he experienced in the iae in the Dombes, that is probaby notthe case. Howeer, in my imaination, I purposey set the story in 1230 because,before that date, Etienne had been inoed in a tria where a woman was burned.After that date, he woud neer aain be partner to a burnin.

The script for Sss was based on many documents and factua sources: Eti-enne's latin text; the Romanesque friezes and capitas iustratin the anima fabes

that were recorded by fokorists many hundreds of years ater; the eder pant withits arious therapeutic properties; the ethnoraphic inquiry into the ast remainin"healing woman". But the plot of the story as played out in the lm, and especiallythe conict and its resolution, are ctitious. Etienne's recollection of a trauma hehad suffered and its reationship to the crime he then committed; his understandinof his own roe as perpetrator of an abominabe act; his attempts to abroate thesentence to which he had condemned Eda --- those eements are dramatic inen-tions. However, his decision, in the lm, to syncretize the memory of the faithfuldog with a true Christian saint does reect something of what commonly happenedwhen sacred gures from the Roman or Celtic realms were too powerful to be oblit-erated from people's memories. In the lm Etienne orders that a chapel be built atthe roe, a chape housin the statue of a Christian saint with a reyhound do athis side. Documents contain no trace of such a chape, thouh the memories ofoctoenarians, as we as the stratiraphy of the archaeooica excaation, demon-


14/20

strate that the site was remembered as connected to specia, if not sacred, rites downthrouh the aes.

We know that, unti modern times, heain, especiay reatin to chidbirth and chi-dren, was in the hands of women. litte of that tradition was written, but it was handed down

oray unti modern science intruded. In the Midde Aes, howeer, the transmission of fokmedicine from mother to daughter was rmly intact, as witnessed by Eteinne's text and by thecenturies-on suria of certain eements of the heain cut. This on suria is memoria-ized by the nal shot ofSss : Eda, hand-in-hand with Anes, the youn heain womanof the next eneration, oin off to guinefort's roe. The new heain woman woud passdown her knowledge of the legend well beyond the thirteenth century. We, the lmmakersin the twentieth, woud re-imaine it in cinematic form.

* For an in-depth historica and ethnoraphic study of Etiennes account see Jean-Caude Schmitt,T hl g, Cambride, 1983. (Oriinay pubished in French as L sat l.) Thescholarly background for many elements in this lm can be found in the Schmitt book.

** For a summary of the archeooica eidence concernin the site of the counts dweinand the offerings made by the mothers of sick children see Jean-Michel Poisson, Aux connsdarchooie et de ethnoraphie, Recherches dans e bois de Saint-guinefort (Ain) in L at- st ab ls s Txts t as Ja gbal, coected by Jean-CaudeDucos, et a., Patrimoine en Isre. Centre apin et rhodanien dethnooie, 2003, 215-220.

__________________

A note on shootin in two different anuaes, thus creatin both a French and anEnish ersion ofSss:

The script was oriinay written in Enish, and we had it transated into Frenchfor the shoot. The main actors earned both the French transation and as we as the

English original. For each scene we shot the close-ups and the medium shots rst inFrench and then in Enish. The Enish of some of the actors was too accented tomake a smooth Enish anuae ersion, so we had their parts re-oiced by otheractors, with their ips in sync with the oriina actors ips as much as possibe.


15/20

ENTRETIEN AVEC SUZANNE SCHIFFMANsur

LE MOINE ET LA SORCIEREEntretien rais par Marc Cherie en ari 1987

Comment en tes-vous venue, aprs avoir t longtemps lassistante de FranoisTruffaut, vouloir passer la ralisation ?I y a eu un autre projet aant ceui-ci. Un scnario auque jai traai aec Jean-

louis Comoi et qui deait tre produit par la C-ciia et Martine Marinac. le scnario tait au dpartdestin Jean-louis, mais je ai deopp dans unedirection diffrente et is (Martine et Jean-louis) ontni par me dire : Pourquoi ne le tournerais-tu pastoi-mme ? Nous tions entre deux projets avec Franois Truf-faut, aors jai dit : Oui, pourquoi pas ? . Jai de-mand Aance sur recettes, je ne ai pas eue, ete projet a t boqu. Mais je ne me suis pas dit ce moment- : I faut absoument que je fasseun lm . Jai toujours pens quil fallait un courageformidable pour faire un lm et jtais trs contentede aisser ce courae aux autres.Avec Franois, je participais au scnario, jtais sur

e tournae, je suiais e montae : je me trouaistrs bien sans langoisse et la responsabilit de celui qui a le lm sur les paules. Etpuis Franois est mort, et cest comme sil y avait eu une coupure avec tout ce quistait pass aant. Jai essay de retraaier comme assistante mais jai compris queje ne pouais pus traaier aec quequun. Je suis rest prs dun an me dire : Quest-ce que je ais faire ? . Je naais ni a force, ni e courae de me ancer dansun projet personne.

Je crois que jai coabor deux ou trois scnarios pour des amis metteurs en scne.Puis au printemps 85, une Amricaine, Pamea Berer, ma tphon de Boston pour

me proposer de traaier comme co-scnariste sur un projet mdia soutenu pare N.E.H. (Nationa Endowment for the Humanities), un norme oranisme cuture Washinton. Jai accept, ee est enue en France et nous nous sommes mises autraai. Pus je rentrais dans ce scnario, pus jy trouais mon compte, et pus jemaperceais qui ny aait quune personne qui prenait des dcisions par rapportau lm que cette histoire pouvait devenir. Jai ni par dire Pamela : On ncritpas un scnario dans e ide, on crit pour un metteur en scne, et pour instant, emetteur en scne, a a lair dtre moi . Ce quoi elle a rpondu : Pourquoi pas ?,et jai continu traaier pour en faire une chose qui me soit personnee.

Est-ce que lide des comdiens tait l ds le dpart ?Jean Carmet (e cur) ds e dpart. Maria de Medeiros (a jeune muette) aussi. I ya eu un court ottement sur Elda et Etienne de Bourbon. Sans doute parce quaumoment o jtais moins impique dans e projet, jacceptais ide de comdiens


16/20

qui aaient pus dans e sens du cich moyeneux. Jai propos e re dEda une comdienne qui a accept puisest reenue sur sa dcision. Ce refusa t extrmement positif pour moipuisqui ma amen prendre des d-

cisions qui aaient pus dans e sensde mon dsir.Jai aors propos e re dEda Christine Boisson et ceui du moine Tchky Karyo. Je saais que eur don-ner ces rles, ctait bon pour le lmet pour eux. Jai envie que les lmsserent es acteurs qui y participent.

Je me suis battue pour les avoir tous les deux, et a aussi cest une bonne faon de

prendre possession dun lm.Lorsque vous dites que vous avez trouv votre compte dans ce projet, cest parrapport quoi ?Parce que, pus quun rcit historique, cest histoire de rapports entre homme etfemme, un rapport entre inteience intuitie et inteience normatie qui estun peu mon propre rapport inteience. Et puis trs fort, enie de raconter unehistoire avec certains acteurs. Lorsquon fait un premier lm trs jeune, on peut lefaire directement sur soi-mme. lorsquon e fait aussi tard que moi, on a enie dese cacher derrire une histoire, mme si on sen sert pour dire queque chose. I y a

aussi un autre ment, peut-tre parce que jai e que jai, jaais enie qui y aitde a bont dans ce que je ferais, de espoir.

Comment avez-vous retravaill le projet initial ?I a fau auer e ct didactique du projet de Pamea Berer (ee est profes-seur dhistoire de lart du Moyen-ge). Jai supprim certains personnages, modidautres, rempac une rande mystique (trs baarde) par e jeune muette. Ctaitun traai daement et dhumour pour ramener histoire une ine narratie pussimple tout en respectant la ralit historique. Jai modi la construction et simpli

la n. Je voulais quil y ait une modestie dans lhistoire et, en la tirant vers la fable, jela tirais vers cette modestie. Cest aussi le sens du gnrique de n, avec les acteursqui apparaissent dans des mdaillons : cest une faon de se dtacher de lhistoire,ce sont des acteurs qui jouent des res.

Est-ce quil y avait une difcult particulire faire parler des personnages du Moyen-ge ?Pas de difcults dans la mesure o nous tions bien convaincues quil ntait pasquestion de es faire parer dans e anae du XIIIme sice, priode aquee sesitue anecdote historique dont Pamea Berer est partie. I est rai que ctait desdiaoues trs crits et qui faait jouer comme sis taient pars, ce qui a par-fois pos des probmes aux comdiens. Ce qui posait aussi des probmes, cestque je eur demandais de ne jamais bascuer ni dans a comdie, ni dans une troprande expressiit, et surtout de ne pas tre pus mains que eurs personnaes :respecter a cohrence du projet ne pouait se faire quen conserant une certaine


17/20

forme de simpicit, de naet, de impidit. I fa-ait trouer un quiibre pour e jeu des acteurs:es aider maintenir chacun eur ine sans se ais-ser entraner par e jeu de autre. Ainsi, ce que jedemandais Christine Boisson, ctait une ine

droite qui tait trs brimante : face Tchky, eeaait impression de ne rien aoir e droit de faire.Je ui disais : Si, tu as e droit de faire ce qui estle plus difcile : faire passer une motion en ayantair de ne rien faire pour cea . Et ee e fait ad-mirabement bien.

Pour Fodor Atkine, qui incarne e Comte de viars, on a traai dans optique duconte de fes : son personnage, cest logre ou Barbe Bleue, pas de nuances, et aaussi i faait oser e faire.

Quels taient vos partis-pris de dpart, par rapport aux problmes de la reprsen-tation du Moyen-ge ?

Je saais surtout ce que je ne ouais pas : pas de zoom, pas de mouements com-piqus, donc pas dEemak sur pancher, seuement des traeins, pas deffets : jeouais des pans simpes, comme si, pour faire croire a fabe du Moyen-e, i fa-ait tourner aussi simpement et naement. Je ne ouais pas mapprocher beaucoupdes personnaes, je sentais que ctais une chose que je ne pouais pas faire, surtouten extrieur : i faait que je es inscrie dans cet enironnement darbres daieursje ouais e moins de cie possibe, et mme e critre de recherche du iae tait

principaement ceui-, i deait tre enferm, entour par es arbres.

Vous avez travaill par rapport des rfrence picturales ou ionographiques prcises ?Pour es costumes, absoument. Pour es objets et es outis, bien sr. Pour imaedensembe du iae, Bernard vezat, e dcorateur, a beaucoup traai partirdures dun raeur du XIXme sice, Bresdin. Mais on nest pas parti dun pein-tre, on ne sest pas dit : On a essayer de ressember .

Le village du lm a t compltement reconstruit ?

Cest un hameau de Corrze, Meyrinac-ise, que nous aons transform. I y aeu un norme traai de rhabiae destoits, de camouage des murs de pierres.Nous aons pris e centre du iae,autour de ise, pour en faire notreiae. lespace a t comptement r-inent partir de trajets que jindiquaisau dcorateur : e moine iendra de ;par , on ira tan ; es Artaud habit-eront Mme si je ne a montre pasprcisment dans le lm, javais besoinde pouoir isuaiser cette toporaphie. Jaurais t incapabe dinenter une rait partir de rien. Jaais besoin de me dire : le chteau, on y a en montant par


18/20

l ; a me donnait un support pour crer cet univers et y faire circuler les person-naes. Ensuite, e iae a t entour de barrires de bois, barricad, aec cette idedenfermement sur ui-mme. Quant au chteau, aec son donjon, cest aussi uneimae nae : un chteau de conte de fes.

Pour ce qui est de la musique, il y avait une question, je suppose, qui tait de savoirsi vous preniez une musique mdivale ou si vous faisiez composer une musiquedaujourdhui ?

Jai rencontr un spciaiste de musique du Moyen-e, Joe Cohen, qui maamen des ments sur cassettes, jai fait aussi repiquer dautres extraits, maisa ne me satisfaisait pas. Javais envie dune musique tourne vers lOrient. Jenai par un ami, Bernard Chaumei, e perchman de innieur du son Pierregamet, qui a une discothque fantastique. I ma fait couter des choses. Je ui aidemand den repiquer certaines jai dcouert Chemirani et e zarb, et jai su

dans quelle direction devait aller la musique du lm. On a fait un pr-mixage aveca, que nous avons fait couter Michel Portal. Il a propos de rajouter au zarbune iee et une oix, mais toujours en pensant Orient : Orient comme unemusique qui est aujourdhui une musique du Moyen-e, aec cette tranet quifait quon a ide du Moyen-e sans y tre. la musique a donc t faite quatre: Chemirani au zarb, qui improisait presque directement sur imae, a iee, unautre musicien iranien qui jouait du Kamantch, et Porta a carinette basse. Cestun traai de rcriture et de reconstruction partir de ments du pr-mixae.

Javais des doutes sur la musique de la n, et nalement Michel ma propos cetteespce de ronde qui aait bien aec ide de fabe.

Vous diriez que le lm parle de quoi ? De lintolrance ? De laveuglement par rap-port une foi ou un dogme ? De la relativit de tout cela et que tout le monde ases raisons ?a parle de tolrance, a parle damour, a parle de la possibilit dadmettre lautre.Mais pour moi, ce ne sont pas des ides, ce sont des sentiments.

Dans quelle direction avez-vous limpression de vouloir aller maintenant ?Le prochain lm, mme si je lai crit avant de tourner celui-ci, a t crit par op-

position au m t la s : i se passe aujourdhui, Paris, sans animaux, sansbb, et cest une comdie en forme denqute. Ce qui me donne a possibiit detourner sans aoir rinenter un monde qui nexiste pas et me donne dautres con-traintes, qui sont cees de Paris aujourdhui. Jai enie de parer de reations entrees ens, et surtout de coupes qui nen sont pas de coupes paradoxaux. A quoisajoute enie de tourner aec certains comdiens que jaime bien et que jai rde oir ensembe sur cran. Ce sont des petites choses, des enies modestes, et ceque je oudrais, traers ces enies modestes, cest donner du paisir aux ens quiregarderont le lm.Et en mme temps, jen reiens toujours des choses pratiques. Pour L mt la s, au dpart, i y aait cette ide de fabe, et ensuite i faut se trouerdes raisons de faire le lm, cest une lutte contre les lments, contre ce dont onne eut pas, i faut faire constamment des choix, et cest traers ces choix quele lm prend son sens. Tout en gardant lide globale du lm en tte, javais en


19/20

permanence limpression de rsoudre un problme particulier la fois : a peuttre les difcults dun dialogue comme les difcults de circulation de lumire intrieur dun ieu.

Je ne pourrais pas fonctionner sur des grands principes abstraits. Un lm, a se faitaec des ens, aec beaucoup darent, mme orsque e budjet est reatiement

bas, et toutes ces responsabilits font partie dun lm et du rsultat nal, sur lcran.Je suis incapabe de me dire : Si on dpasse, ou si on puise es ens fairedouze heures de pus, ce nest pas rae . I faut composer, et je ne pense pas quece soit natif. Cest une obiation positie de deoir composer aec es raitsconomiques ou physiques des ens aec qui on traaie, aec eurs personnait.Surmonter toutes ces contraintes, cest se prouver soi-mme que le lm avait uneraison dexister. Mme si on cours de route on a des doutes abominabes. Et je croisquon ne peux pas ne pas en aoir. Cest cea aussi qui est un moteur et qui donneenvie de faire dautres lms. Des choses que je nai pas pu faire ou qui sont russises

mais presque comme si ctait mar moi, et que a prochaine fois je oudrais rus-sir oontairement. Des pistes que je oudrais exporer, ou des armes que je nai pasutiises pour obtenir tees choses et dont je sais maintenant comment je pourraises utiiser. Tant quon na pas anoisse de toutes ces responsabiits, on napprendrien, ce nest pas comparabe. On apprend e bonheur de faire du cinma, cestrai Ce qui est rai aussi, cest que je suis incapabe de faire autre chose. Donc ifaut bien que je mentte !


20/20

Sss is a suspensefu drama reoin around Eti-

enne de Bourbon, a 13th century Dominican friar who,sent by the Pope to seek out heretics, arries in a smaFrench iae where he discoers Eda, a straney beau-tifu and mysterious forest woman. Eda is respected inthe iae because she performs ancient heain rituasand understands natures secrets. As an inquisitor, Eti-enne sets out to inestiate these rites and practices. It is

the confrontation between the two, the conict betweentwo sets of beiefs, which forms the basis for this moinand beautiful lm. Sss is a dramatization of theconict between ancient customs and religious dogma.

COlOR, 96 MINUTES, DRAMA, NOT RATED